Indiana Board of Education Approves Take Over Plan

The Indiana Board of Education held its final vote earlier today on the take over five Hoosier schools, four of them from Indianapolis. Our colleague Brandon Smith with Indiana Public Broadcasting filed this report.

The board unanimously approved each of the Department of Education’s recommendations for state action on the schools in their sixth year of academic probation.  Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene White, who attended the meeting, says some of the information about IPS the board discussed is blatantly untrue:

“And I really resent the fact that people can sit there and pretend that we’ve done nothing to make an effort.  We’ve made tremendous efforts and respectively, I want those particular efforts recognized.”

State superintendent Tony Bennett says the time for such complaints has long been over:

“Well, very bluntly, Dr. White’s had two years to talk about fair shakes and share transparent information.  So to come to the board today and say, ‘I’m not getting a fair shake,’ is disingenuous.”

White announced last week IPS will file suit against the state in an attempt to block the takeovers.